the republicans have presented their plan, which is to my eyes, steeper than the fiscal cliff we're about to fall off of. where does the simpson/bowles recommendation stand, and are they coming to you now and saying, "oh, we forgot. you guys studied this. what do you think? >> well, we studied it for eight months. and it was tough. we didn't-- we had-- it took us three months to establish trust. these guys don't trust each other. they don't even trust each other in their own party. you've got leaders who are people behind them with a shive hoping they can get their job next go-around. poor old durbin has someone looking over his back because he voted for the package. every time they deal and over in the republicans, boehner has to go to work and come back and there's-- now there are 70 of them left, the tea party guys. these are guys who went to congress not to limit government but to stop it. so what are you going to do? and so here we have this plan. everybody says "i love the framework. i just love--" >> jon: everybody loves a good framework. >> and then that will say what did you do w